Following the Foreclosure Issues

Although most of the posts for this blog are written to help you with your preparedness goals or share how one family or other is doing things to give you ideas; it is never-the-less important to stay abreast of issues going on in our nation that could impact you personally, financially, etc. Issues in the news can also impact the urgency of your preparedness activities or could make you change your focus of priorities for purchases, etc.

If you have not been following the events related to the Foreclosure nightmare that is unfolding, or if you have just been going by the blips of information you have received from the main stream media regarding it, then you really do not have a good picture of the urgency of this situation and how significant the impact could be for all of us financially regarding this mess.

I highly recommend the following blog - The Market Ticker - for putting the information out about this for the past 3 YEARS and telling people that this would all blow up one day - and for keeping it real and letting us know what's going on in terms and definitions we can all understand.

So, if you haven't been keeping up, please go do some reading and educate yourself. My thought is while I can't be an expert about everything myself - I can better prepare for myself and my family if I keep up with important events around me by reading about them from the experts that are out there.

Here is a good place to start - and you can search his blog for Foreclosuregate to see all the past entries that will spell it all out for you in understandable detail.

The Market Ticker on Foreclosuregate

Excerpt:

" . . . .These events sure look like black-letter crimes to me. Selling someone crap instead of chocolate, when you tell them it's chocolate, is plain old-fashioned fraud. So is selling someone called a "Mortgage-backed security" without the mortgage backed part. In both cases, if and when this happened, you have people who took someone's money - some $6 trillion of it over the "go-go" years - and sold them crap that was certified as Grade "AAA" chocolate. In each and every case where the sellers lied, they committed a serious crime.

Who got screwed? You. Your pension fund. Your annuity company - an insurance company that might not be able to pay 10 years down the road when you're old, gray and frail.

You are the one who got screwed.

And if these clowns have their way, you'll get screwed again. The Senate knows, and is holding hearings on how to steal your 401ks - your private money - to make up the money the banks stole from Union pension funds. That's right folks - they know, and they're trying to figure out how to make it "more fair" - which is code in Washington DC for taking money from those who didn't get robbed by the banks and giving it to those who did, instead of making the robbers pay back what they stole and unjustly bonused out to their much-vaunted "talent."

Through all this we can't seem to find a prosecutor, perhaps because they're all bought and paid for by those same banks, who threaten "the end of the world" if they would be forced to eat their own cooking - or in this case, their own packaging of the dogcrap they foisted off on you.

What's worse is that we're letting all these people cover it up, even though the game had to go right through the executive suite of these big banks - you simply can't make the argument that which comprises "how one makes their money" wasn't known to the guys at the top.

Everyone talking about this in the mainstream media - with a handful of exceptions like myself on Dylan Ratigan's show, is trying to play this down as a mere technicality.

It's not.

It's a coverup that is now coming unraveled.

Why now?

Because the cash flow - or rather, the lack there - on these defaulted instruments is now becoming a serious problem, and as such you have banks furiously attempting to keep from coming to light the entirety of what happened - and they sure as hell don't want you to look closely at their practices over the last five years!

I said three years ago and have maintained since that in the end the cash flow would kill these games, because while all sorts of lies can be put on a balance sheet, you will never get away with falsifying the deposit ticket.

Guess what? That day has arrived.

Wake up America.

You've been robbed - by the bank."

The Market Ticker


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Winter Weather Watch - Are You Prepared?

Those of us here in West TN and in various other areas of the Mid-South are well aware of the watches and advisories that we've been seeing for potential hazardous winter weather that could hit us in the next 48 hours.

Are you prepared?

Remember what happened to Western Kentucky recently? There were places there without power for weeks on end after they got hit with their ice storm. Remember Memphis in '91 when the ice storm hit - again, places without power for weeks.

We have the "potential" for that kind of severe winter weather later this week - are you ready? Because if we have a significant weather event, believe me you're going to need more than a quick run to the grocery for milk, bread, chips and beer.

Things to Think About

If we get hit with 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice, which is what they were considering earlier this evening, followed by 2 or more inches of snow - power outages are a real possibility. Weather forecasters are also concerned because here in West TN we're supposed to have wind gusts around 40 m.p.h. - which could cause ice covered tree limbs to fall, causing power outages.

~ Do you have a generator?
~ Do you have treated, stored gasoline to power it?
~ Do you know how long it can run on a gallon of gas? How often you have to change the oil in it? What you can safely run on it?
~ If you do not have a generator - what is your alternative?
~ Do you have plenty of batteries? Alternatives for lighting?
~ What will you do for heat?
~ How will you cook? Do you have stored cooking fuel? Utensils to cook over a fire in the fireplace?
~ What will you do with your fridge and freezer items if the power is out for an extended time?
~ Have you thought about water? Do you have water stored? Do you have places you can store water inside so it won't freeze? Do you know how much water you need for your family just for basic cooking?
~ If limbs come down on your property, do you have a way to remove them?
~ If, heaven forbid, limbs come down on your home - do you have contingency plans for a place to stay? Do you have extra cash on hand for unexpected emergencies such as this?
~ Do you have battery powered emergency radios or weather radios or hand-crank radios so that you can try to find out the status of events in your area?
~ Do you have activities to keep little ones busy during the day?

This is not anywhere near an all-inclusive list, but it is a start - ways you need to be thinking to prepare - because we just don't know what we might get this week.

Stay safe, stay tuned to the weather and be ready!

Add to Your Preps AND Help Haiti!

Okay all you preparedness friends out there - if you need to add something to your preps and want to help Haiti at the same time - please go to MRE Depotfor your shopping - they are offering 3 different ways to help:

1) 10% off any purchase and they will send the 10% to Haiti - PROMO CODE IS HAITI, and/or

2) place an order of goods and they'll pay to ship it directly to Haiti and/or

3) make a cash donation and they'll match it.

This is a very reputable company we've used them a lot for our purchases - they have great prices, good shipping and fantastic customer service.

If the item is on their website, they have it in stock.

We can personally recommend (meaning we've tried these ourselves) the Red Feather Butter, the Yoder's Canned Bacon, the Costa Rica Green Coffee Beans, and the Canned Taco Meat.

Prepping for the Winter Season

Things have been busy around the homestead of late; hubby was called up by the reserves at the first of the month to spend another year on active duty (stateside, thankfully) ~ we're in the middle of processing our fall cattle for our beef customers ~ we're winterizing our bees ~ planning for the holidays - the list of things that have kept me quite busy for several days goes on and on.

In all of that, I've also been reviewing our winter preps. At the first little cold nibble, I start to run everything through my mind to make sure I'm as prepared as I can be for the coming winter season. This is something we work on throughout the year, but I always do a check as winter approaches to make sure everything is in good order.

Granted, in West Tennessee we don't have a terribly severe winter season - no real snow to concern ourselves with most years; occasionally an ice storm will visit us - but since we never know exactly what's on the agenda for Mother Nature any given year, it's nice to be prepared for what might come our way.

I start by making sure my food preps are in order. We keep long term, intermediate, short term and current use food preps. My current use food preps for the most part are always the one being used plus 2 in the pantry. For example, if I have an open peanut butter - there should be 2 more unopened ones in the pantry (or fridge or freezer, depending on what it is). We work it this way for our most commonly used items - things like butter, oats, sugar, peanut butter, ketchup, spices, cooking oils, etc.

I know that if we have an ice storm, for example, I'm well set with my pantry and other storage foods to make it through for many weeks if necessary. Along with food preps I make sure I have cooking fuel, something to open my canned goods with that isn't electric, things to cook with over a fire if necessary, things like that.

I make sure we have plenty of stored water. We keep some 55 gallon barrels of water stored outside, as well as juice containers of water inside. We also have some Water Bobs on hand that we could use in the bathtubs to store an additional 100 gallons of water if necessary.

Next I think about heat. One reason I live in the South is because I really don't like to be cold. And I'm cold once it drops below 75 degrees! So I tend to think a LOT about heat and ways to stay warm. Several years ago we had the gas line to our fireplace capped and had it lined with firebricks so we could use it to burn wood instead. This has been nice, but this year we're going to step it up and put in a wood stove insert so that if necessary, we could heat our entire home from the fireplace.

We have a little over 3 cords of wood put up, another cord to split and access to plenty more wood should the need arise. I anticipate we'll have our wood stove in place in the next month. We're looking at a couple of models that also have a cook-top option, which would be another cooking alternative should the power be out for any reason.

Those are my big 3 areas that I try to make sure are in good order. There are tons of other little things too - like making sure the furnace is in good order and the filter is new before we switch over to the heat, making sure our outdoor faucets have covers to keep them from freezing, making sure our vehicles are appropriately winterized and have winter emergency gear in them, getting our winter bed coverings out and refreshed, switching out the fall and winter clothes for the children and adults, and other things specific to our family and our homestead.

Are you ready for this winter season? Is there anything special you do to prepare? Let us know if you've found a particular tip or trick that helps you along!

Civil or Uncivilized?

There's been an interesting little discussion going on at Survival Boards for the past few days - revolving around the question: "At what point will people stop being civilized?" In other words, in the event of a major societal disaster or breakdown, when will people lose it?

Hubby has the following opinion - as always, we welcome a hearty discussion and love to hear your individual opinions - so feel free to leave us some comments!

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Like many other questions about individuals, the answer will vary widely with the individual in question.

For some, possibly the earliest they will become uncivilized is when they realize that no one is watching - they are no longer constrained by law enforcement or held accountable. This crew turns savage sometime between the initial event and two days; they are your initial threat and may be present in riots or gangs. NOTE: Well disciplined gangs may conserve assets and gather information biding their time until much later.

Be prepared to deal with this group of people out of your Get Home Bag (GHB) and CCW.

Others will become uncivilized when their food, medicine or other goods they typically purchase run out; sometime between day two and one week after the initial event.

Be prepared to deal with this group of people out of a Bail Out Bag (BOB).

Yet others will become uncivilized when they realize no help is coming, there is no FEMA rescue, I'd say about one to two weeks after an initial event for this crowd.

Be prepared to deal with these people from your Bail Out Location (BOL). In some cases you could use these people to your advantage to recruit critical skills you need in your group. Perhaps something like Labor for Room and Board-type arrangements.

Finally, the organized predators, or road-gangs will come out; they will be equipped to take what they want from small groups of preppers, and will seek out sources of supply to raid or loot. They may be capable of overcoming small communities or fortified family groups. They will appear between three weeks to two months after the initial event. These people are actively looking for your Bail Out Location (BOL). Be aware, this group could also include well-trained former Law Enforcement Officers and Security Contractors.

So, in my opinion I think we should plan to expect multiple different waves of people to get uncivilized as each group reaches its trigger point.

Some people might see the first group as the biggest problem, I don't - they are easiest to dissuade by a threat of forceful response by an individual.

I see the last group as the greatest problem. They will not be dissuaded by the resistance of an individual - they have to be actually be stopped, and individual effort will not be sufficient. This is why many form "mutual assistance groups".

It is my opinion that any "mutual assistance group" with less than six operators will be ineffective or compromised as you move down the list of "uncivilized" people you will have to deal with.

Preparedness Cross-Training

Here's something to think about this fine fall weekend if you haven't already: Among your immediate prepper "family" or "mutual support group" - how much cross-training do you have?

Is this something you have thought much about? Not only how much cross-training do you have, but how much do you think you need? In what particular areas? If you had to be self-sufficient for a period of time, do you have enough people to do all the things that would need to be done in a day?

My mind has been thinking on this topic again recently, since my husband received mobilization orders and left this past week for a one-year assignment with the Army. He's stateside and will probably be able to come home for weekend visit every 2-3 months - so we're fortunate in that regard.

Given a lot of the things going on these days though - businesses still closing, unemployment still going up, homes still going into foreclosure, restlessness about the looming healthcare bill, concern about our economic stability, concerns about Iran, Iraq, terrorism in general, the swine flu, upcoming winter weather - there are lots of things to think about and pay attention to that could have an impact on your day-to-day life and survival.

Knowing that my husband won't be here on a day-to-day basis has made me spend some time thinking again about our preparedness plans and how they would (or would not!) work without him here to be a major participant in our plans.

We all tend to gravitate toward preparedness activities that we enjoy doing or know how to do well. And I'd venture to guess that in most families, Dad has his set of skills and areas he takes care of, Mom has hers and together they probably assign activities to any of the children that are around.

So if you take Dad or Mom out of the picture - how do your plans work? Where are the holes? Seems to me that cross-training would be a good idea to keep things going as smoothly as possible. Which means you have to think about what areas to cross-train, who to train, how frequently will you have them practice to learn and keep their skills, etc.

For example, I know how to build a great fire to heat our home and we've put in 3 new cords of wood this year (we're in West TN remember, it doesn't get super cold here for extended periods of time). We're narrowing down wood stove inserts and plan to purchase one in the next couple of weeks - it will have the ability to heat our entire home if necessary and also have a cooktop. So our ability to heat our home and have an alternative cooking method is in good shape. This year I'll be teaching our oldest child (age 10) how to start a fire and keep it going as good as I can.

Something I don't know a lot about though, is running the new generator we've purchased. I haven't seen it in operation yet. Also, we recently purchased a set of solar panels, 125 amp and 265 amp batteries, inverter - but this is another area that I don't know a lot about and need additional training if I want to make these useful to me. Hubby knows all about these items, but since we got them in place just before he left, he hasn't had the chance to cross-train me.

My oldest child at age 10 knows how to do quite a bit of cooking, laundry, basic cleaning, learned to mow the lawn this year, etc.

We take quite a bit of time to try to train our children how to do things that are part of our day-to-day lives and as they grow and mature, we add to these things like archery skills, shooting sports and safe gun handling, livestock care, etc.

Some preppers have taken the time to prepare elaborate notebooks with instructions so any member of their family can pick up the notebook and have detailed instructions about a variety of necessary tasks.

We haven't done this yet, but I know it is a great idea and one I'll be working on throughout this fall. Most of us have lots of information in our heads that we know intimately, but if we needed a spouse, child, friend or neighbor to pick up in our stead, there might be a few or many bumps along the way without a written plan.

I realize some personality types would see this level of detailed instruction as a nightmare. But there is probably someone in your immediate prepper group who would see the value of this level of preparedness and would take on the task of getting at least your most critical instructions in writing.

So now you know what's on my mind for the weekend and beyond - feel free to share any ideas or thoughts you have about cross-training - have you done it already? is it on your "to do" list? how will you accomplish it? have you set up a notebook of instructions? We'd love to hear your ideas.

How and Why to Prepare for Swine Flu

This is a bit long, but for those of you who are interested, I hope it contains information that will help you in your preparedness efforts for Swine Flu.

By now, most people are well aware of the fact that swine flu is still making its way across the country and picking up speed in the Southeast where schools have been in session since early August.

Just last week in TN alone, a 5 year old died in Nashville (sick on Friday, died on Monday – that’s quick folks), a 5 year old died in Chattanooga and a 13 year old has died in Memphis. Pediatrics are being hard-hit by this virus, so we must be vigilant in our preparedness actions.

Most of what is causing deaths is not the swine flu itself, but a viral pneumonia that hits some people along with the swine flu. Some also are getting a bacterial pneumonia that is very antibiotic resistant. And some perfectly healthy people are experiencing what is known as a cytokine storm – their immune system goes to work too well and overwhelms their lungs fighting off the virus - in essence they drown. Research so far is showing that in many of those who have died due to “swine flu”, their lungs look remarkably like those who died from Bird Flu (H5N1). There are avian components to this flu, in addition to swine and human.

Overall, the death rate from this particular strain of H1N1 is very low. In reality, there is little you can do other than the usual good hygiene to try to avoid getting this virus. However, you just never know when you are going to touch a door handle, shopping cart, ATM touch pad, bank ink pen, gas pump handle or something else that has the flu virus on it.

Even if you homeschool and are relatively out of the mainstream, you need to consider all the opportunities for exposure you still have: church, the grocery store, the bank, the post office, the gas station, homeschool events, etc. And if there are children in your neighborhood who attend public or private school and your children play with them, they might as well be in the same classroom with them, because they will be exposed to whatever is in that school.

I’ve been tracking and researching this virus daily since it first appeared this April. I’ve watched what happened in the southern hemisphere – to our neighbors in Australia – during our summer (their winter). The unique thing about this H1N1 virus is that it is ideally suited for both summer and winter due to its unique genetic makeup with swine and avian flu components.

Also unique is that over 50% of the people who get the H1N1 flu never have fever. H1N1 flu is a form of Influenza A. At this time of year, approximately 99% of the flu being seen in our country is H1N1, since seasonal flu likes the cold and hasn’t gotten started yet.

In Australia, although deaths were relatively low, the flu did overwhelm their medical facilities in many places because everyone was going to the doctors and emergency rooms. Elective surgeries were canceled. Physicians and nurses got sick. Some refused to come to work. Some orderlies refused to clean up after flu patients.

In Europe, some children have died after being misdiagnosed OVER THE PHONE on a medical hotline.

Think about this for a minute – if you were pregnant and planning a hospital birth, would you really want to have to go to a hospital inundated with swine flu to give birth? If ambulances are backed up taking sick flu patients to the hospital, what happens to the severe traffic accident on the way to work in the morning? You need to think about the greater impact of the flu than just the sickness. You must think about the overall impact to your way of living, because this flu might cause some minor to major disruptions in the way you are accustomed to doing things.

That said there are several ways we can prudently prepare for the swine flu in our areas this fall and winter.

First, you need to make sure that you have everything you need at your home to care for a family member that might get sick with this flu. Medications, soothing foods and drinks for rehydration, disinfectants, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, perhaps gloves for cleaning, N95 face masks to protect those in the family who aren’t sick, separate toothpaste tubes for each family member, separate hand towels for each family member, a working thermometer, a humidifier – anything that comforts you when you are sick – make sure you have it on hand NOW. You don't want to wait until you need it and you certainly don't want to wait for tons of people to get sick and stores to be out of what you need.

Basically, think about what you might need to get through 2-4 weeks of flu making the rounds of your family. If someone gets the flu in your family, the CDC recommends that all other family members who have been exposed plan to stay at home from school and work for at least 5 days to avoid transmitting the virus to others. If you do get the flu, the CDC recommends staying at home for a full 24 hours after your last fever (without fever meds) before going back out into public.

If you like to scratch cook, you might want to consider taking a weekend and making a few foods to put in the freezer that could be pulled out and heated by any family member – things like meatloaf, lasagna, soup, stew and the like. Have easy breakfast items like oatmeal or cereal. Keep some powdered milk on hand. If you run out of fresh milk, believe me you can use powdered milk in oatmeal and cereal and hardly tell the difference.

Mom or Dad, if you are the primary cook, think about what your family can make for themselves if you get sick. Perhaps you want to get some easy to make or heat items that even younger children can make – cans of soup, ravioli, fruit cocktail, peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and crackers, cheese sandwiches and the like. This is the time to have some easy to make meals on hand.

Having someone sick in the home means you will be doing more laundry. Make sure you have plenty of soap, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent and/or liquid, hand sanitizer, toothpaste. You’ll want to make sure you have new toothbrushes on hand to give everyone after illness runs through your family. It is a good idea for everyone to have their own tube of toothpaste anyway to keep germs from spreading. Don’t keep all the toothbrushes all together in one place bumping into each other. Keep them separated so germs aren’t being passed from one to the other.

Have plenty of towels and washcloths on hand and ready to go. Cold washcloths on the throat and forehead help with nausea. And for little children, we line their beds and the hallway with towels all the way to the bathroom. Believe me, it is much easier if someone gets sick to pick up a towel and wash it then have to strip the whole bed and remake it.

You can get small buckets or waste cans that children can use by their bed as sick pans if you don’t want them trying to make it down the hall to get sick and spread their germs everywhere.

If your whole family ends up at home for several days, you will want to have things on hand to keep everyone occupied. CDs, DVDs, books, readers, workbooks, coloring books, pencils, crayons, sticker books – we keep several items such of these tucked away so we can pull out something new whenever the need might arise.

Remember that if you aren’t leaving the house, you might need to have some cash at home – you never know when you might need something delivered; perhaps a neighbor or relative is willing to run an errand for you and you’ll need to be able to reimburse them.

Make sure to keep gas in the tanks of your cars. If someone needs to go to the emergency room in the middle of the night, you certainly don’t want to have to stop for gas first. We never let our tanks get below ½ full in case an emergency comes up.

It also pays to think about what might happen if the flu takes a severe turn and there are quarantines in your area. Imagine that your city or county is placed under a 7-14 day quarantine. No going out of your homes for any reason. How prepared are you for something like that to happen?

Even if there are no mandatory quarantines in your area, are you prepared to self-quarantine if necessary to protect your family? What are your parameters? What has to happen to trigger a self-quarantine for your family? It pays to think some of these things through.

If you have questions about the risk factors for flu for any of your family members, be sure to talk to your family doctor. Have a plan. Know what you need to do for those in your family who are in a higher risk group (those with asthma, diabetes or pregnancy). Know ahead of time what your parameters are for going to the doctor or hospital if someone in your family gets sick. Obviously, if we all rush to the doctor at the first sign of a cough and muscle aches or fever, our medical facilities will be over-run.

Know if your doctor will prescribe Tamiflu or Relenza over the phone. Know whether or not you even want to take either of these medications to begin with. Do your research. The FDA has a warning letter about Tamiflu use in pediatrics. You can read it here: Tamiflu Warning Letter. Know that there have been many identified cases of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1. Know that Tamiflu and Relenza are not cures for the flu – they are just supposed to reduce the severity and duration.

Right now it appears that the H1N1 vaccine will not be available until sometime between mid-October and November. It is planned for 2 doses, approximately one month apart. It is estimated that it will then take approximately 2 weeks for immunity after both vaccines. This means late this year for most people - around the end of December or so. You need to be prepared that swine flu might visit you before you are ever able to get in line for a vaccine. Know that even if you get the vaccine, you might still get H1N1 flu – especially if the virus mutates so that it is significantly different from what is contained in the vaccine. Know if the vaccine is even the right choice for you or your family – do your research and be an informed consumer.

Remember that it is important that we don’t panic, but that we arm ourselves with knowledge and do the preparations NOW that are necessary to keep our families as safe and healthy as possible.

Preparedness Skills - Basics and Beyond

Found an excellent website tonight that I want to share with everyone: Listening To Katrina

In the author's own words:

Listening to Katrina is a record of my personal experience of hurricane Katrina, and a guide to help you prepare for emergencies and disasters of all kinds. This work is very straightforward and available entirely online. I am not selling anything.

This site has several uses. I have been told that it is enormously entertaining - so if nothing else, it's good for goofing off at work. You can access all of the content of this site through the CONTENTS menu at the left side of any page.

MEDIA & LINKS - Links to other sites and other media that reference this site.

WORKBOOK - The site encourages you to create and maintain a Workbook for your family. As you read the Listening to Katrina sections, you'll be taught how to do this. I don't sell the workbook. You have to build your own, but you can print all the pages for free from that link.

PREPAREDNESS PROJECTS - The site encourages you to make certain preparations, but does not provide much depth on some technical details. The Preparedness Projects pages provide that detail. They are also designed so that you can accomplish each project in your own time frame in small steps.

LISTENING TO KATRINA - This is the main portion of the site. It is the story and the guide. While I use my experience of Katrina as an example, the preparations I talk about aren't just about hurricanes. The preparations I cover are useful for every sort of emergency - from a simple house fire to global thermonuclear war. Every page has a place in the context, and I invite you to read the site page for page in sequence. There are very few pages that are extraneous, and if you skip around you will lose the context and the site will not be very useful to you.

Another excerpt I like - in his story about heading out ahead of Katrina:

A good measure of the mental condition of your fellow evacuees is litter. The more panic people feel, the less they care about the niceties of society. Litter is a direct correlation with the mental condition of the people. The roadside, rest stops, and refueling stations were quickly full of litter. Not a good sign.

This is a very extensive website with TONS of useful information that will make you think and get your preps into gear - you need to check this site out no matter where you might be on your preparedness journey.

Will "Normal" Return??

According to Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker, with support from many others, the answer is NO.

He had an excellent post on Sunday to explain his reasoning. It includes a one hour and thirty minute video by William Black, the former liquidation director who was in charge of investigating the S&L disaster.

Here's an excerpt - then get on over there sometime when you can pay attention for about as long as a bad movie - you'll be glad you did and will walk away with a much better understanding of why we're in the economic mess we are in today:

Sunday Lesson: Why "Normal" Will Never Return - The Market Ticker

Be warned - this is a long presentation, lasting more than an hour and a half. It is worth every minute of your time and is in fact essential to understanding both what happened and more importantly why the economy cannot recover on a durable basis.

Note that one single bank, IndyMac, lost more money than all of the S&Ls combined.

Folks, the key "take away" here is what is called "control fraud." In order for trust to be restored - that is, in order for markets to function normally, this fraud must be eradicated from the system so that normal levels of business trust can be restored.

It hasn't been.

Lady Preppers Show Download

Thanks for everyone who listened in on our very first Lady Preppers forum on the James Stevens' Family Preparedness Guide on Blog Talk Radio!

If you missed the chance to listen in on yesterday's live show, you can still download the show by going to this link: James Stevens' Family Preparedness Guide - Lady Preppers.

While we had one hour on the air live, we continued to talk and discuss for another hour, so it is actually a 2 hour show!

We had a great time and are looking forward to becoming a regular part of his talk show in the near future - with specific topics that we'll be addressing each time.

So, if you are new to prepping and have lots of burning questions - start writing them down and if you want you can even feel free to email them to me.

The one thing I really love about being part of the American Preppers Group is how well we all share information. If you are just getting started with your prepping activities, the information shared throughout our state networks can easily take you from 0 to 100 in much less time than you could possibly research and learn everything all by yourself.

So, come along for the ride, check the Family Preparedness Guide radio schedule often and get your questions ready!

Lady Preppers on Family Preparedness Guide Radio Show!

Last Saturday American Prepper, WVSanta, Matt and Bob were interviewed on James Stevens' Family Preparedness Guide radio show on Blog Talk Radio. They did a great job explaining the ins and outs of prepping and why we do it. It was a great show guys!!! If you missed the show, you can still download it here.

This Saturday (08 August 2009) James is having the ladies on his show to discuss the Prepper Networks and prepping from a female point of view! It is going to make for a very interesting discussion!

Please tune in at 2:00pm/EST and listen to Phelan (Kansas Preppers Network), Ernie (Indiana Preppers Network), Kymber (Canadian Preppers Network) and me! You can listen to the show live and call in with your questions (347-326-9604), or you can download the show later using this link.

Please be there to support us! And remember - we love questions so bring them along!!!

Hope to hear you on the radio!

Sorting Through Headlines

Yes, the DOW was up 188 points today. I'm sure people who have managed to still have any money left in their 401k accounts are exceedingly happy.

But, it pays to step back from the main-stream media headlines and decide for yourself how you think things are going in our nation and in the world. You can't be necessarily swayed by any one headline, good or bad, but have to stay the course to be prepared for whatever might come your way.

Take stock of what is actually going on around you. What you can see and feel and know, not what other "experts" are supposedly telling you.

Are you or your neighbors unemployed?
Are there houses that are empty or foreclosed on your street, in your neighborhood?
Are you and your friends/family/neighbors watching your pennies more closely? Are costs for items you buy on a regular basis getting more expensive?
Is your state having budget problems?
Is your state increasing taxes? Laying people off?
Is unemployment in your area increasing or decreasing?
Are businesses going out of business?
Is commercial real estate getting empty due to loss of leases?

Pay attention to what you can see and know, not always what you read or hear and stay the course that you think is best for you and your family.

Some other headlines of the day you might want to preview, besides the ones about the market going over 9000:

Headlines, July 23, 3009

Crystal Ball? Fall Flu Thoughts

There has been some great reading this morning (heck, actually all week) over at The Market Ticker. If you don't regularly read that blog, I cannot express strongly enough how much I encourage you to do so. You'll get some straight-forward analysis of the current goings-on of our economy, the bailouts, the markets, unemployment, the banks - everything. And it is in plain English, so you'll know and understand what you are reading and walk away having time well-spent learning something new or understanding something more fully.

Okay, fresh from The Market Ticker this morning I found this little gem of information about the H1N1 flu virus (click on the H1N1 link to read the full blog post). I know, lots of people seem tired of hearing about this and think it is just another "no big deal" flu bug.

But not so fast. We know that this virus is different from our "usual" flu viruses because it seems to prefer warm temperatures. That's why we're still seeing increasing numbers of infection of this virus in the U.S. even though it is summer.

I do have to say here that I'm very disappointed in the way the CDC is posting statistics on this virus - they are woefully behind and it has been stated publicly on many forums that most states are hardly doing any testing at all for this virus except on the most severe, hospitalized cases. So the numbers could be much higher and we just don't know it.

There are reports now coming out from Shanghai that the virus has mutated there and has now also picked up a viral sequence (E627K) that makes it also well-suited for cold climates - which has scientists now a bit worried about how this virus will hit those in the Northern Hemisphere this fall/winter. If the virus mutates enough, those who might have gotten it here in the U.S. this spring/summer could get the "new" version of it again this fall/winter.

Also, this particular flu strain is hitting those in the age range of 30-50 years old particularly hard. It is causing something called a cytokine storm in some of these individuals that are otherwise normal and healthy - basically their immune system ends up working too well when attacking this bug causing a fatal reaction.

Scientists are closely watching the development and evolution of this virus in the Southern Hemisphere that is now experiencing their normal winter cold/flu season. They hope to glean some information from the behavior of the virus that might let us have a peek into what to expect in our hemisphere this fall.

Their thoughts on what the virus will be like this fall are not optimistic. Taken from the Utah Public Health Situation Report Dated 24 Jun 2009:

CDC is now estimating that the novel H1N1 virus will be “Category 2” in severity. They are closely watching the situation in the Southern Hemisphere for validation of this estimate.
A category 2 pandemic has the following characteristics:
~Case fatality ratio of 0.1 percent to less than 0.5 percent.
~Between 90,000 and 450,000 deaths in the U.S. (compared with estimated 36,000 deaths during a typical influenza season).
~Excess death rate of between 30 to less than 150 per 100,000 people.
~Illness rate of between 20 and 40 percent.
~Similar to 1957 pandemic.

All this to say, continue to pay attention to this virus and how it is behaving. I recently found a whole forum board dedicated to international discussion and information sharing on H1N1 - you can go here: Pandemic Flu Information Forum.

If you don't already have a plan of action for your family for this fall in case this virus turns very ugly, you should. You should be prepared to "self-quarantine" if needed and stay put in your home for at least 2 weeks to 30 days, possibly longer, because of waves of infection.

Start thinking now about the items you would need to have on hand to do that. Make your lists and start gradually making your purchases now, so it is not such a big hit on your budget all at one time. I'll post soon on what we think some of the essential items are to have on hand and what we've done to prepare for just such a possibility.

Feel free to share any first-hand experiences you've had with this virus, or preparations you've taken for your family.

H1N1 + H5N1 = ????

Most of you have heard of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. In addition to all the research and treatment done yearly on childhood cancers, it is one of the TOP 5 Influenza research centers in the world.

Dr. Robert Webster at St. Jude, often referred to as the "Pope of Influenza" has been studying influenza strains his entire career. When he speak about influenza, people listen - or should.

He is commenting recently that even though we've only seen what has turned out to be a very mild disease in this new strain of H1N1 (swine) flu, it is very important that we diligently watch how this virus begins to interact with other viruses as it travels the globe.

Other reports have indicated that research shows this new strain of H1N1 is particularly adept at grabbing onto genetic material from other flu viruses.

What Dr. Webster is watching carefully is whether the H1N1 virus, at it begins to travel in areas where Bird Flu is endemic (Indonesia, Egypt, and others), will combine with Bird Flu to produce something that could be very nasty indeed.

While many are now acting as though the "boy cried wolf" on this current H1N1 outbreak, I for one, as a prepper, will keep this in my sights for quite some time to watch how it acts throughout the world as it continues to travel.

The Southern Hemisphere is just starting winter. Egypt and Vietnam each had a case of Bird Flu just this week - the person in Egypt survived, the person in Vietnam did not. In the case of these viruses, we cannot be too careful.

Many who have studied pandemics of the past are aware that they often first appeared at the end of a flu season and were mild, but came back for the next couple of years during the winter flu season with a vengeance.

As H1N1 travels through Asia, Africa and 3rd World countries we should keep a close eye on the outcomes and have our preparedness plans already in place for what could happen this fall or winter - or some winter in the near future.

Part of being prepared is keeping an eye and ear open to what is going on and making sure you have the essentials in place to get through whatever might be necessary to keep you and/or your family safe for the duration. One thing we cannot afford to be is lax - we aren't worried or fearful or anxious, but prepared.

Additional Reading:

Fox News: Top Flu Expert Warns of Swine Flu-Bird Flu Mix

Dr. Robert Webster - Influenza, World-Class Expertise

Scott McPherson: Why Egypt Wants To Kill All The Pigs

Why We Prep - Swine Flu!

UPDATE 02 May 09:

Continuing to monitor the global situation - here are a couple of alternative flu tracking maps that are providing great up-to-date information:

FluTracker

One of my favorites:

RSOE EDIS - Pandemic Monitor

UPDATE 28 Apr 09:

AP: Swine Flu's Ground Zero? - article mentions first new illnesses back in Feb 2009

Good Forum Post on buying preventative masks from Survival Forum

CDC Daily Update

Bloomberg: Flu Spreads to Hundreds in New York

Reuters: New Swine Flu Infections Intensify Travel Fears

Texas Dept of State Health - Guidelines for First Responders

UPDATE 26 Apr 09:

CDC Swine Flu - What's New

Excellent source of historical tracking and information: Biosurveillance

Talk Back: BBC - Real Accounts from healthcare and others with first-hand knowledge in Mexico describe what they have experienced / seen.

Keep in mind that the CDC website states that they only confirm illness/death on this new strain if they have received confirmation of the strain from a CDC laboratory.

UPDATE 25 Apr 09: Track cases via Google Map - H1N1 Swine Flu

By now most of you have probably heard about the 1000 people sick in Mexico with a new, never before seen version of swine flu. At least 20 deaths in Mexico have been attributed to this new strain. While there have been 7 reported cases in the US (San Antonio, TX and San Diego, CA), the people in the US have recovered.

The reason there is growing concern about this at the Centers For Disease Control and the World Health Organization is that this particularly nasty strain is hitting otherwise normal, healthy people - in Mexico those with this illness are sometimes on a respirator within 48-hours of becoming ill. Also, this particular strain is a combination of swine, avian (bird) and human influenza and is a strain that has never before been seen in man or swine - this is something that definitely bears our very close attention.

We can assume that the mainstream media is downplaying this at this point to prevent panic, but as "preppers" this is one of the many things are / should be prepared for.

If this turns into a full-fledged pandemic it will be good to know that we can stay at home and have everything we need for several weeks without having to go out in the general public.

Here's a late story from today about the virus so far:

Tonight, from Reuters:

WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday it was too late to contain the swine flu outbreak in the United States.

CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing it was likely too late to try to contain the outbreak, by vaccinating, treating or isolating people.

"There are things that we see that suggest that containment is not very likely," he said.

Others:

Reuter's - Deadly New Flu Strain Erupts in Mexico

Here's some information on Swine Flu from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Here's the CDC page where they are Investigating Human Outbreaks

From the World Health Organization - Mexico apparently had cases under surveillance as early as 18 March 2009

Prevention Guidelines from the CDC are at the link.

You might want to consider stocking up on some Vitamin C, masks (N-95 particulate one), fever reducer (tylenol), gloves, over-the-counter and/or homeopathic flu relief medications, bleach and/or other disinfectants for washing clothing, bedding, mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms.

This is also a good time to make sure you have your food and water preps in order just in case you find yourself needing to stay at home for an extended period of time.

Pay attention to this one everyone.

Keeping Up

Are you all trying hard to keep up with the goings on of our government in Washington?

I strongly recommend that you add The Market Ticker to your DAILY reading if you don't already. Karl Denninger puts it straight, on a daily basis, so you'll know exactly what's going on in, around and behind the scenes.

A few highlights:

Open Challenge To The States

Washington Corruption

Check it out if you don't already.

Tea Party Review

Did you attend a tea party in your area yesterday? How did it go? Where do you think it will go from here?

Here's a roundup of tea-party news from across the state and nation:

Fayette County (Somerville, TN) - crowd of about 500

Memphis - crowd of about a 1000 - not good news coverage to be found

Chattanooga Times Free Press - crowd of approximately 2000

Knoxville WBIR.com

Shelbyville Times Gazette - reporting on Nashville (10,000 in attendance) and Murfreesboro

Scared Monkey - blogged about the Nashville tea party

Tax Day Tea Party - good info on attendance across the nation

CAGW: Know Your Pork

Even though it has been a while since the 2009 Federal Budget was passed with all of it excessive pork spending - I thought you might want to have the link so you can browse at your leisure all of the 10,160 pork projects that were included at a cost of 19.6 BILLION. Be sure to check out your state representatives and see how much pork was promised to your state!

Here's the link: Citizens Against Government Waste: 2009 Pig Book Summary

Community Gardening

Interested in getting a community garden started in your area? It might be as simple as approaching a local church to get your idea going.

What started as an idea I expressed in passing to one of our church pastors has now turned into a successful adventure - at least so far!

In about 4 weeks, we've signed up 32 families to participate in the first ever community garden at our church. The church has provided the ground and the lumber for us to make our square foot gardening frames. A church member has stepped up and offered to provide all of the seeds and vegetables that our families will need to plant their garden plots. Another church member donated an 18-wheeler full of compost to improve the soil. Many other church members have volunteered their time helping me design the space, for tilling the ground, moving in the compost with a backhoe and we all met this past Friday to build our garden frames.

Each family participating will have (2) 4x8 garden plots that they will plant and can keep their harvest. All participating families will also help tend a 20 foot x 40 foot "community" plot for the church; the church receives all the harvest from this plot to give to families in need at our church our community.

At our first class meeting, the families gave me the list of veggies they most wanted to plant. Since most of the families participating are very new to gardening, I then took that information and helped them by plotting out what would be best planted where in their square foot garden sections.

Each family now has a planting plan for their garden section that they'll use when we meet again as a group on April 25th for our very first planting day.

If you have a dream or desire to teach others to garden, but don't have the space for a large community garden - the key might just be as close as your local church - you never know until you ask!

CyberSecurity???

Funny, I don't feel any safer after reading this information. Two bills, both introduced by Senator Jay Rockefeller, are being started in the Senate as part of the Cybersecurity Act of 2009: S. 773 and S. 778. The text of these bills is not available yet on GovTrack, but I'll keep looking for it so I can read the text in its entirety. But here's the premise:

S. 773: A bill to ensure the continued free flow of commerce within the United States and with its global trading partners through secure cyber communications, to provide for the continued development and exploitation of the Internet and intranet communications for such purposes, to provide for the development of a cadre of information technology specialists to improve and maintain effective cybersecurity defenses against disruption, and for other purposes.

S. 778: Bill to establish an Office of National Cybersecurity Advisor

A summary can be found here: Cyberbill Summary

According to a news article by WorldNetDaily, after viewing a working copy of the bills, they can:

"First, the White House, through the national cybersecurity advisor, shall have the authority to disconnect "critical infrastructure" networks from the Internet – including private citizens' banks and health records, if Rockefeller's examples are accurate – if they are found to be at risk of cyber attack. The working copy of the bill, however, does not define what constitutes a cybersecurity emergency, and apparently leaves the question to the discretion of the president.

Second, the bill establishes the Department of Commerce as "the clearinghouse of cybersecurity threat and vulnerability information," including the monitoring of private information networks deemed a part of the "critical infrastructure."

Third, the legislation proposes implementation of a professional licensing program for certifying who can serve as a cybersecurity professional."

This is definitely something for us to keep track of. For those how-to articles and bookmarked sites that you love - you might want to consider having a copy on your hard drive!